A Closer Look

While the fin stack certainly has a unique fin design that creates airflow channels, this is still a dual-tower design similar to most top-tier air coolers on the market. What does set it apart somewhat is the usage of copper-colored fins in the middle. While you may be thinking "oh, copper fins?", they are plated and not actually solid copper. Still, it's an interesting design element, although a bit misleading.


The air channels formed by the 4D stereoscopic corrugated fins work quite well, directing the airflow through the heatsink. Considering the design of fans, I expected more airflow loss and a lack of static pressure, but Zalman's designs compliment each other well, which was quite surprising. Thus, while the marketing may be a bit fluffy in nature, there is at least some substance here.


A quick look at the top shows evenly spaced heat pipes, which is normal for this style of cooler. On monolithic tower coolers, it makes sense to stagger or offset the heat pipes for more efficient heat transfer, but here, in a dual-tower design, the size of the fins makes that unnecessary. As for the base, Zalman calls it RDTH (Reverse Direct Touch Heatpipes), but that is just fancy marketing for a copper cold plate that transfers heat to the heat pipes. I commend them for coming up with a fancy term for it, but from what I can see here without hacking it apart, it's just another standard cooler-base design. It's smooth, and while machining marks are visible, those on my sample are fairly faint compared to what I usually see.


The fans are Zalman's ZM-SF140 RGB spider inspired dual-blade fans. They spin at 800–1500 RPM, which isn't terrible, but I would have liked a wider RPM range for a guarantee that the fans can ramp down further, to say 300 RPM. This would improve the overall noise profile and give users a wider range in which to find that perfect sweet spot.